Wednesday, December 1, 2010

i want to like rick mercer ....

... but sometimes it seems he just doesn't get it. he did an awesome job exposing the anti-democratic nature of the appointed, pensioned, elitist senate (see video), but on last night's show he really missed the boat. a segment that left people thinking heli-logging in bc is cool (click here for the reality show version) followed by the construction of a wooden habitat for humanity home gives the impression that destroying our precious ancient rainforests is okay because people get houses out of them. what's left out of this story is the devastation that's already happened in our forest valleys forcing helicopters into the remaining hard to reach areas, the real impacts of heli-logging on endangered environments and the mudslides and flooding that results, the closure of mills and jobs throughout bc so corporate fatcats can earn more millions more for themselves by shipping those raw logs out of the country. most likely the wood used to build the habitat for humanity home in last night's rick mercer segment was not processed in canada, though it was likely extracted from ancient rainforests that are invaluable for myriad forms of life, to transform carbon dioxide into oxygen, to maintain some climate equilibrium on our planet, to preserve the heritage of indigenous people who never surrendered this land. this is the story rick did not rant about. perhaps that is the difference between west and east. people in oregon likely have more of an understanding what i'm upset about than people in eastern canada.